Eureka could be in for rain this weekend with a broad area of low pressure settling in over the county, according to the National Weather Service.

NWS meteorologist Brian Garcia said the first chance of a storm could be noticed around midweek, with nice weather and showers here and there leading into Wednesday.

"On Wednesday, there will be a short wave bringing in a weak front that will bring a chance of rain," Garcia said. "This area of low pressure going by us is offshore, which is similar to the system we saw over the weekend."

The proximity of the low pressure to the coast will determine if it rains or not.

"I have, at the highest, 1 inch for Eureka with a 30 percent confidence that it will rain," Garcia said. "As the low comes closer, we'll raise or lower that percentage based on where the low settles. It will then slide down toward central California, and they have a better chance of rain than we do."

Garcia said the weather for Thursday and Friday looks decent with lingering clouds and another potential storm coming in Saturday.

"By Saturday we see a warm front roll in followed closely by a cold front, and this system may, and that's a big may, have slight tropical connections, so we could see quite a bit of precipitation early Sunday morning into the rest of the day," he said. "My confidence for this is low because it's six days out, and it's a really narrow band of precipitation, so if it moves 50 or even 100 miles, it could change. I can tell you it's going to rain somewhere, but I just can't tell you where."

If the models hold true, Garcia said, the King Range and Siskiyou Mountains could see between 3 and 5 inches of rain, and Eureka could get 1 or 2 inches.

"This is a very big if, but at that point, there'll be a lot of cold air, so we could see some snow in the mountains as well," he said. "I just want to prepare people."

Garcia stressed the likelihood is that we will not end up seeing as much precipitation as the models are currently showing.